The brake of the paying-out machine used on the occasion of the first attempt was capable, by a movement of the hand, of exerting prodigious resistance. In the new machine any one could in a moment ease it, until there was no resistance at all beyond the 8 cwt. strain on the wire.
At a few feet from the paying-out machine, the Cable passed over a wheel, which registered precisely the strain in pounds at which the coil was running out. Facing this register was a steering wheel, similar to that of an ordinary vessel, and connected in the same way with compound levers, which acted upon the brake. The officer in charge of the apparatus stood by this wheel, and watched the register of strain or pitch of the vessel, opening the brakes by the slightest movement of his hand, and letting the Cable run freely as the stern rose. The same officer, however, could not by any possible method increase the actual strain on the Cable, which remained always according to the friction at which the brake was at first adjusted by the engineer.
All was ready for the expedition before the time indicated, and the directors and the public looked with confidence to the result. Instead of landing a shore-end at Valentia, and making a junction of the Cable, it was decided that the ships should proceed together to a point midway between Trinity Bay and Valentia, there splice the Cable, and then turn their bows east and west, and proceed to their destinations.
On Thursday, the 10th of June, 1858, H.M.S. Agamemnon and U.S.N.S. Niagara, accompanied by H.M.S. Valorous and H.M.S. Gorgon, left Plymouth, the two former having previously made an experimental cruise in the Channel with the Cables, which were very satisfactory, in all respects.
Experienced mariners gazed with apprehension at their depth in water as they left the shore. It was, however, such glorious weather as to cause some anxiety lest there should be no wind, and that the stock of coals might be exhausted before their mission was accomplished. Before midnight, however, a gradually increasing gale gathered to a storm, while the barometer marked 29°. For seven consecutive days the tempest, so eloquently described by Mr. Woods in the Times, continued, the Agamemnon under close-reefed topsails striving to reach the rendezvous, Lat. 52° 2´, Long. 33° 18´, rolling 45 degrees, and labouring fearfully.
On the 19th and 20th the gale reached its height. The position of the ship, carrying 2,840 tons of dead-weight, badly stowed, had become most critical, from her violent lurching as she sunk into the troughs of the sea, and struggled violently to right herself—the coal bunkers gave way, and caused alarm and confusion. Were the masts to yield, the ship would rock still more violently, the Cable would shift, and carry every one with it to destruction. Captain Preedy had but two courses open in order to save the ship without sacrificing the Cable—either was fraught with peril—to wear the ship, or to run before the gale and risk the chances of being pooped by the monster seas in pursuit.
On the 21st the Agamemnon was enabled to bear up for the rendezvous in mid-ocean, which she reached on the 25th, after sixteen days of danger and apprehension, her companion, the Niagara, having passed through the dreadful ordeal with less danger and difficulty.
At half-past two o’clock on the 26th, the Agamemnon and Niagara first spliced the Cable; it however became foul of the scraper on the latter ship, and broke. A second splice was immediately made, and the vessels started. The Agamemnon had paid out 37½ miles, when suddenly the continuity of the electric current ceased, and the electricians declared that the Cable had broken at the bottom. As the Niagara was hauling in the Cable, of which she had payed out 43 miles, it snapped close to the ship.
On the 28th, the third and final splice was effected. The Niagara started N.W. ¾ N. At 4 p.m. on the 29th, when 111 miles had been paid out, the electricians on board reported that continuity had ceased. The cause was soon known. The Agamemnon had run 118 miles, and paid out 146 miles of Cable, when the upper deck coil became exhausted. Speed was slackened, in order to shift the Cable to the lower deck, when suddenly it snapped, without any perceptible cause, under a strain of only 2200 pounds. The weather was calm; the speed moderate—about five knots; the strain one-third less than breaking strain; everything favourable; and yet the Cable parted, silently and suddenly. The Niagara had to cut the Cable, as she had no means of recovering the portion payed out, and lost 144 miles of it.
On the 12th July, the Agamemnon, after an eventful cruise of thirty-three days, reached Queenstown, having left the rendezvous on the 6th, whither she had gone in the hope of meeting the Niagara. A special meeting of the Company was called, and the expedition was ordered to go to sea. There was still quite sufficient Cable remaining, and it was determined to make another attempt immediately. The way in which the Cable parted on the third occasion was the only thing calculated to create doubt and apprehension. The two other breakages might be accounted for, and guarded against for the future, but there was something in the latter not so easy of explanation, and which seemed to point to some mysterious agency existing in the depths of the ocean, beyond the perception of science or man’s control.